Climate migrants in Bangladesh struggle due to unsafe housing, temporary jobs: Report

Dhaka, June 21 (IANS) Tidal surges, cyclones, river erosion and rising salinity have been destroying homesteads across the coastal delta of Bangladesh. Thousands of people have been fleeing disaster-prone coastal zones and moving to cities. However, the migrants continue to struggle in cities as they face unsafe housing, temporary jobs, limited access to healthcare and education, and social deprivation, a report has stated.

“Experts warn that this climate-change-driven internal displacement has become one of Bangladesh’s biggest social and developmental challenges. Yet, the necessary policy frameworks and coordinated initiatives required to protect the rights and security of climate migrants remain largely inadequate,” Zahida Parvez Chhanda wrote in a report in Pressenza International Press Agency.

During a recent roundtable discussion organised by Caritas Bangladesh at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) auditorium, journalists, development workers, and media representatives called for creating an effective policy for climate migrants and said that the issue must be highlighted with greater urgency in national and international media.

“Bangladesh remains one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Sea-level rise, frequent cyclones, severe river erosion, and an alarming expansion of salinity in the southern and southwestern coastal regions are continuously threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions. This severe onslaught of climate change is devastating the rural economy, forcing a massive population shift toward urban centres,” the report said.

During the discussion, the participants highlighted the humanitarian and social dimensions of the migrant crisis in Bangladesh. Renowned journalist Sohrab Hasan said the crisis faced by displaced people is increasingly profound and complex. Sohrab Hasan said, “No one leaves their hearth, home, and ancestral memories to move to a city by choice. It is a brutal decision forced upon them solely by the urge to survive.”

He said that climate migrants, after moving to cities, often find themselves excluded from national social safety net programmes. According to him, climate migrants continuously face bureaucratic hurdles and discrimination when trying to access emergency public services, rations, or financial aid, as their National Identity Cards (NID) still carry their permanent village addresses, according to the report in Pressenza International Press Agency.

Disaster Management Department at Caritas Bangladesh head, Alexander Tripura, stated that climate-vulnerable nations like Bangladesh are paying the price for the unchecked carbon emissions of developed nations. Experts said that climate migrants should be treated as a matter of international climate justice. During the discussion, participants urged the Bangladesh government to implement a comprehensive and coordinated national policy.

–IANS

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